About me….

I've been part of the strange tribe of runners for over 35 years and had a few beers along the way. Beer is a subject rich with culture, economics, science and history in addition to being mighty tasty. Sometimes I try to think deeply on those subjects, or at least look that way. Other times, I just ramble on about beers or breweries I like. And like all runners, I can’t help talking about my running from time to time. When I'm not drinking beer or running, I'm a Silicon Valley tech geek prone to overthinking things.

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Scenes from a Japantown Beer Walk

The Beer Walk series has quickly become my favorite beer festival. No, it doesn’t have all those hard to find beers, and no, you won’t find a bunch of palate searing IPA’s or strange concoctions that are essentially weird homebrewing experiments from professional brewers. Instead, in a casual setting, you grab a glass, walk around a small downtown area and sample the beers from all the participating breweries at each participating store. Most of the breweries are local and a many of the beers poured can be found at your local grocery store, but I always find something interesting and new. The fun is really exploring all the little shops and discovering what brewery is providing samples inside. If I have one complaint from yesterday’s Beer Walk, it’s that Japantown’s ukulele store was not one of the pouring stations.

I also find these Beer Walks to be great opportunities to chat with all the brewing reps at each location to find out a more about their breweries and upcoming releases. I got to meet briefly with fellow South Bay blogger Brian Wimsett. It’s a much more relaxed and varied setting than the usual chaos of a beer festival and both my wife and I have a blast each time we do a Beer Walk. Beer Walks are also great for can posing a beer glass in odd retail settings and to taking silly pictures. So without further ado, here are the scenes from yesterday’s Japantown Beer Walk in San Jose.